1. Field
The disclosure relates generally to data processing, and more specifically, to counters in multithreaded processors.
2. Description of Related Art
Chips may contain multiple processors and multiple processor cores on which applications run multiple threads. The processor cores may have built-in performance instrumentation that monitors various performance-related events occurring during operation of the chip. Performance instrumentation may consist of performance monitor units that provide counters and support for selecting and routing event signals to those counters. Performance monitor units may also interrupt one or more processors in response to a condition being met. For example, interruption of a thread on a processor may be necessary in response to a counter overflow to support instruction sampling. An interrupt signal to the processor core may be used to freeze a register that holds the address of an instruction that is executing at the time the condition occurred, or that has recently completed execution.